


Like the flames you loved as a child (Like the fire that taught you pain)

by Nightingale_Warbles



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Azula (Avatar)-centric, Character Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26326969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightingale_Warbles/pseuds/Nightingale_Warbles
Summary: Fire had never touched Azula's skin, had never burned her. Regardless, just like her brother, fire had managed to scar her for life.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	Like the flames you loved as a child (Like the fire that taught you pain)

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended. 
> 
> Title is from the poem Flame Truths by Nikita Gill.

Azula had never been afraid of fire. Fire could burn anyone, even firebenders, but, despite her constantly being in close proximity to it, fire had never touched her skin. Fire was a constant in her life, considering who she was and who her father was. She had been born from the flames. But, when she stuck her hand in the fire, it would go out.

Her father was very proud of this fact. He said that this was an early sign of firebending, which would make Azula a very powerful bender when she grew up. All Azula, in all of her toddler glory, knew was that the pretty lights always turned off when she went near them. She did not understand. Zuko got to play with the flames! He got the light! But anytime she went near them, they quickly faded and she would become surrounded by darkness.

As she grew older, she began to gain control of the fire. She was able to get closer and closer to it, able to shape it with a thought and a wave of her hand. She worked hard to become as much a part of the fire as she could be, enjoying the feeling of its warmth any time she was able to gain enough control to get close to the flames. She watched Zuko’s training, which he had started years earlier, and she waved from her seat beside her father as she surpassed him in all ways. She had more friends, more power, more control, and, most importantly, more success.

Azula knew she was better than her brother. She had heard her father say it to everyone he had mentioned his children to. “Oh, the boy, that's Zuko. My daughter, Azula, has already mastered all of her intermediate forms. Her instructors are very impressed with her skill and power.” He always talked about her achievements, and never Zuko.

There was one thing Zuko could do that Azula still couldn’t. Azula, no matter how hard she tried, could not bring flame to her skin. She was jealous of her brother’s ability to do this, although it was a silly and petty want. Her father was very proud of her for never burning herself, while Zuko seemed to burn himself anytime he practiced. And while she had no wish for pain, Azula wished she could come into contact with her element.

Sometimes, when being around others was too much and the flames they always carried with them were torture to look at, she would go to the palace library and sit in the rafters and read books. There were enough in there to last her entire life, and because of the value of some of the more delicate scrolls stored there, fire was strictly forbidden within the walls of the library.

Azula liked books for many reasons. If you asked her, she would probably give you an answer with something to do with learning from history and the mistakes of the past, if she did not laugh you out first. But the truth was, she felt more at home with these fragile pages than she did around other people. She felt a sense of kinship with this paper that would never feel fire’s touch, just like her.

One day, while she was sitting in the rafters, Azula became enraptured in a story about a world in which bending did not exist, and the world was divided up into things called countries. She was reading Book 9: The Age of Revolution, at the moment. It was very interesting, with many cunning, powerful, and smart commanders. Azula was tempted to employ some of these tactics if she was ever in charge of an army.

While she was thinking of how she could employ these plans and reading on, she became oblivious to everything around her. And so when smoke started to rise from the ground floor, Azula did not notice. In fact, she did not notice until the smoke had become so thick around her that she could not see the floor. Smoke hung so thick in the library’s rafters that she could read words in it. Azula was not scared, but she was not sure how she was going to get down. She could jump, but the beam she was sitting on was high. Usually, she would just climb down, but most of the beams below her were in flames, and probably not able to hold her body weight in certain places. If she tried to climb down, one wrong step would lead to her death.

There was no other way down, though. As she climbed down, anything she touched stopped burning. By the time she made it down to the ground floor and out the door, most of the library had been burned to the ground, and all that remained of the books were ashes and embers. In her arms she held the book that she had been reading, the only thing to survive. As she heard people running to the library, she placed the book in the center of the ruins and turned her back to walk away.

Later, as she watched her brother’s Agni Kai, she was glad that she did not walk away from the library with burns like his, and glad that she never would. She realized that fire was truly dangerous to others, and she was lucky that she would never have to feel the flames. She may not get the warmth, but at least she also did not feel the heat.

And even longer after that, as she stood on a battlefield, having attacked someone dishonorably, having inflicted the flames on so many others, she thought back to the book in the ashes. The pristine pages surrounded by the remains of all it had ever known.

Azula had never been afraid of fire. But as she watched her world turn to ashes around her and saw her connections to everyone she knew burn, she finally understood why others did. Fire may have never touched Azula’s skin, but it still found many ways to hurt her.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you so much for reading this! This is my first fic, so if you see any mistakes or have any comments or suggestions, either for this or future fics, please let me know! Thanks for your time, Nightingale.


End file.
